Another day, another word. Or 21 of them in this case, as I’ve hammered out the Saan table of demonstratives and whatnot, a chart akin to Esperanto’s correlatives, though I like to consider it more inspired by the Japanese thing with koko/soko/etc. Here they are with approximate English translations:
| -jzi | -le | -ci | -mmḿe | -dzu | -mńe | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ha- | this | here | 1s (formal) | 1pl (formal) | now | |
| le- | that | there | them (s.) | them (pl) | then | |
| go- | which | where | what | how | when | |
| cu- | something | somewhere | someone | some people | somehow | sometime |
Mostly this system derives from a much simpler one I had in Naretvei with just position and pronoun (haji/haci, this/1s), but there’s a lot more to it now.
cuci
/ˈtsutɕi̥/
(n.) an unknown or unspecified person
cudzu
/ˈtsudzu̥/
(adv.) in some way, by some means
Note: This is the one oddball of the set that I don’t really like, as it’s the only adverb amongst nouns.
cujzi
/ˈtsu.d̯zˑi/
(n.) an unknown or unspecified thing
cule
/ˈtsu.ɺ̻ɛ/
(n.) an unknown or unspecified place
cummḿe
/ˈtsumː.mjɛ/
(n.) a group of unknown or unspecified people; or, an unknown or unspecified group of people.
cumńe
/ˈtsumnjɛ/
(n.) an unknown or unspecified time
goci
/ˈgotɕi̥/
(n.) what, who. Considered rude to refer to people when not used in conjunction with “an” (“person”).
godzu
/ˈgodzu̥/
(n.) how
gojzi
/ˈgo.d̯zˑi/
(n.) which
gole
/ˈgo.ɺ̻ɛ/
(n.) where
gomńe
/ˈgomnjɛ/
(n.) when
haci
/ˈhɐtɕi̥/
(n.) first-person singular formal pronoun. Akin to a self-referential “this one”.
hajzi
/ˈhɐ.d̯zˑi/
(n.) this
hale
/ˈhɐ.ɺ̻ɛ/
(n.) here
hammḿe
/ˈhɐmː.mjɛ/
(n.) first-person plural formal pronoun. Akin to a self-referential “these ones”.
hamńe
/ˈhɐmnjɛ/
(n.) now
leci
/ˈɺ̻ɛtɕi̥/
(n.) non-first-person singular formal pronoun.
Note: This is rarely used for the second person.
lejzi
/ˈɺ̻ɛ.d̯zˑi/
(n.) that
lele
/ˈɺ̻ɛ.ɺ̻ɛ/
(n.) there
lemmḿe
/ˈɺ̻ɛmː.mjɛ/
(n.) non-first-person plural formal pronoun.
Note: This is rarely used for the second person.
lemńe
/ˈɺ̻ɛm.njɛ/
(n.) then (past or future)
If none of those sound like real #Lexember words for you, then I suppose there’s always:
niiparraan
/ˈniː.pɐʁ.ʁɐːn/
(n.) nostalgia. From niiparraa.
niiparraa
/ˈniː.pɐʁ.ʁɐː/
(v.) to experience nostalgia, to have nostalgia for
To make those, I had to introduce another word and a suffix:
nii
/ˈniː/
(v.) think. From the Naretvei word “nii” (“to know”).
And the suffix -par (/pɐʁ/), which is used to produce a momentane nominalisation, e.g. to think → a thought, or to speak → a speech.
That’s all for today! Happy conlanging!